Don't Fuck with the White Mage (Jujutsu Kaisen - Utahime Iori SI Chapter 12)
Ijichi Kiyotaka wondered if today was the day he dies.
The entire situation was absurd form the start.
How did some small time cult manage to create such catastrophe? According to Kiyotaka's father, investigation into the Seeker's cult revealed that there shouldn't be any Curse Users in it.
Did they just luck in all the rituals they did, and never realized they birthed Cursed Spirits in the places they left behind?
Yet the results can't be denied. With their final act, Urasato Village was decimated. No one was left alive, not even the cultist as they took their own lives as well.
That was the only positive about this situation.
"Don't falter now, Kiyotaka-kun. We just have to hold on for the Kyoto and Tokyo teams to arrive. It shouldn't be that long now." His father, Ijichi Isao, said besides him, as they and other Sorcerers upheld a Simple Barrier. Not to block the Curses, but to hide them and the group left from being detected by the Cursed Spirits. "How are you doing, Hiroshi-san?" Isao asked another Sorcerer.
Yasuo Hiroshi was a Sorcerer with the Innate Technique, Mist. It allowed him to manipulate the moisture in the air to create a mist that messed with one's sense of direction.
"It's fine. I can still... hold up." The middle aged, Hiroshi had said. He had his technique up continuously without rest for fifteen minutes now. Give his Cursed Energy output and capacity, it was a valiant, respectable effort. He had begun his technique once the first signs of the containment barrier cracking had appeared.
A wise decision that ensured their group survived thus far.
They were in the west side of Urasato. The other groups in the south, east and north hopefully are managing to keep up and hold on as well. Kiyotaka could only hope.
Thud.
And suddenly everyone fell silent.
They looked to the source of the sound, only to see a small green colored Cursed Spirit. Only as tall as an adult human's knees.
The Cursed Spirit shook its head in confusion, before it let out an annoyed cry and walked forward.
Thud.
It hit the barrier again. A barrier it shouldn't be able to see.
No. No, no no no, nononono! Kiyotaka felt his stomach drop. Of all the rotten luck, one of the Special Grades, or at least a part of it, stumbled onto their hiding spot.
The small Cursed Spirit tilted it's head, before slowly putting its hand forward. The hand was stopped by the barrier. It lifted the hand then slammed it forward. Once, twice, thrice.
The Goblin Cursed Spirit grinned.
"Keke, KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKAAAAAA!" It started screaming. Calling others to its location.
"Shit, shit, shit shit!" Swore one of the Sorcerers around.
For while there was nothing but the goblin's scream.
Then...
Thud.
Thud.
Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
One by one, the Goblin Curses just by wondering aimlessly following the cries of it's fellow, stumbled onto the barrier from different sides. Each accidently slamming into the barrier, being confused for a while, before realizing that something was there.
As they cried one by one, the ground began to shake as one of the Special Grades, their main body was making it's way toward them.
The teenage Kiyotaka felt his eyes water in despair and terror.
Slowly from the mist, its form began to appear. The Special Grade Cursed Spirit baring the symbol of the Jewel of Life, Goblin Maker.
It was a giant troll-like being, holding a large Kasuga Toro. It's green-ish body may have seemed solid, but it in actuality more like slime that can change its density. From it's back, it constantly produced little goblin Curses to carry out its will. The goblins were born from the people absorbed by the Special Grade Cursed Spirit, and would bring it people to make more goblins, dead or alive.
Worse, Kiyotaka had seen the Goblin Maker slain once. Only for one of the goblin it left behind to begin to grow and was reborn into another Goblin Maker.
The Curse grunted as it looked at them once it was in range. And it was looking at them, it could see them.
"Stand firm." Isao cried out. "If this is to be our last act, we will at least ensure one of us escape to report on the Special Grades and their capabilities."
Kiyotaka looked to his father at his inspirational words, only to see Isao looking pointed at him.
Kiyotaka shook his head. No, please no. He didn't want to be a coward. He didn't want to abandon his father, friends and colleagues just to survive.
The Goblin Make roared as it walked near. Taking its time, almost as if it was savoring their despair.
"Kiyotaka, it has to be you. You can hide better if you didn't have to shield us." Isao said firmly.
"Father. Father, please no. I-"
The Goblin Maker stood in front of the dome barrier holding their group, and roared.
Then an explosion nearby shook the grounds.
Both groups, Sorcerer and Curses looked at the source of the sounds and explosions with confusion.
Up in the sky Kiyotaka thought he saw an angel, launching lances of fire.
Only to focus and realize, it was a Sorcerer in a miko outfit. Her 'wings' were... a pair of shotguns and machine guns?
In her hand was an grenade launcher, that she was constantly firing. He could see the ball of fire leave her weapon at supersonic speeds, slam into the ground and create an explosion that looked like a dome of Cursed Energy bursting out, destroying everything it touched. Kiyotaka could see multiple perfectly circular craters being left in her wake.
As she got closer, Kiyotaka could hear and constant sound of gunfire. He thought she was throwing off condensed bits of Cursed Energy from her 'wings', but it turns out it was the floating weapons next to her that were constantly firing. Each bullet fired was enveloped in enough Cursed Energy to rival a Cursed Tool.
No. Kiyotaka's eyes widened as his senses told him otherwise. Every item she holds, every gun-No, every bullet is a Cursed Tool! How!?
The machine guns' bullets were like heat-seeking flies targeting every Cursed Spirits in the vicinity, even if not killing them right away, then downing them through death by a thousand ant bites. Every shotgun shell was like a blast from a sci-fi laser railgun.
The Goblin Maker looked upon the miko gun angel with rage, as it grabbed on its newly formed goblins and lobbed it at her.
Rather than hit her, instantly the Sorceress blasted the goblin full of hole with her machine gun bullets. And now her attention was on the Goblin Maker.
The Cursed Spirit may have been a Special Grade. It was a potential walking disaster. Yet it was animalistic in its thoughts. It acted on instinct.
Thus in response to the primal fear it felt upon the miko's eyes landing upon it, rather than act wisely and strategize it responded with rage.
It roared and screamed with rage. A cry similar to when the goblins call upon one another. Instantly all the goblins began to run toward it. Returning into their creator's body, being absorbed once again, as the Goblin Maker grew in size and strength.
The Miko Sorcerer fired four grenade shots. These ones seemed infused with far more Cursed Energy than they usually did.
The flew toward Goblin Maker in a spiral formation, with the Cursed Spirit at the center. As the grenades got close, Kiyotaka blinked, his eyes widening as he felt the property of that Cursed Energy. Positive Energy.
All four grenades were channeling Utahime's Gathering Hallowed Belt.
As the four shots landed upon the Goblin Maker, they exploded once more into a burst of energy that broke down, and incinerated the very being of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
The Goblin Maker couldn't even roar in defiance at its ignoble death.
Then Utahime dive bombed into the explosion of Positive Energy, causing it to bomb out and rush outward like a pulse carrying the Curse Technique Reversal. A dome of Positive Energy erupted forward at neck breaking speeds erasing any Cursed Spirit it came into contact with, leaving nothing of the malevolent spirits behind.
A single strangler goblin that was left behind, out of the Goblin Maker's survival instinct was easily cause in the rushing wave and was no more.
One down. Nine more to go.
"Where are the injured!?" Utahime slammed into the ground, and then shouted. Already all the present Sorcerers began to feel their Cursed Energy levels rise up and refill again.
Those injured that were pointed out was instantly healed the moment Utahime's gaze landed upon them.
Ijichi Kiyotaka cried out in relief, dropping to the ground on his knees, as he couldn't believe that he and everyone were going to live. Looking at Iori Utahime, whom he had heard multiple accounts of, he could think of her arrival just in time as nothing but a miracle.
